CIUDAD JUAREZ — In a small, hot room, in Ciudad Juárez’s Colonia El Granjero, some of the most accomplished slam poets in the Western Hemisphere performed before an audience of migrants and aid workers at Comunidad AVES.
The 16 poets gathered for the Feria del Libro de la Frontera to compete for the Abya Yala Copa América Poetry Slam Championship, a competition among national champions from throughout the Americas that would give top performers a ticket to compete in the World Poetry Slam Championship in Togo later this year.
But before their official competition began Friday, June 28, participating slam poets shared messages about strength, resilience and preserving cultural legacies with a few of the thousands of migrants temporarily living in Juárez as they await to present themselves to U.S. officials.
“To migrate is more animal than human,” poet Zandy Nova, 22, said in Spanish about her audience. “Literature, the spoken word, makes people and families take root. When we approach literature, poetry, the spoken word, we strengthen our experiences. The places (that migrants) pass through don’t just teach them, they also teach the local people who live in those spaces.”
Zandy Nova, a poet from Oaxaca, Mexico, entertains children in her audience at Comunidad AVES with hand motions that complement her poem on food traditions, June 28, 2024. Nova was in Juárez to compete in the Abya Yala Copa América Poetry Slam. Some members of the audience have been blurred for their protection. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
Nova is from the Mexican state of Oaxaca and draws a large part of her inspiration from her mother, an indigenous Mazatec woman, who prepares and shares food as a form of love.
For Colombian poet Andrea Zapata, spoken word performances take poetry out of sometimes “elitist” academic circles and make it accessible to a wider population.
“Slam poetry is the democratization of poetry. Poetry speaks of the senses, the soul and spirit of human emotion,” Zapata said in Spanish. “It should belong to the people who most need it. A person can, through poetry, bring a message of hope.”
In the audience, children and adults from various countries listened intently and shared warm applause for each poet. Many audience members approached poets after their performance to ask for autographs.
The event also was a culmination of a partnership between the Chihuahua Secretary of Culture and the International Organization on Migration to publish a book of poetry, IOM spokesperson Claudia Rivera said. The book, titled “Poesía y Disidencias” (“Poetry and Dissidents”), features about 60 poems in Spanish, English, Portuguese and French.
Colombian poet Andrea Zapata performs her poem at Comunidad AVES in Ciudad Juárez as she prepares to compete in the Abya Yala Copa América Poetry Slam, June 28, 2024. Some members of the audience have been blurred for their protection. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
“We have wanted to create programs that unite the host communities and the migrants so that there’s a positive experience and a positive narrative about migration,” Rivera said.
Karina Murillo, the Chihuahua state secretary of culture, said that the purpose of the event was to unite different communities.
“Poetry is one of the literary disciplines that is most able to permeate the body,” Murillo said in Spanish. “It doesn’t even have to be in your language for you to feel it, to understand the ideas of the poet.”
A Colombian-Canadian poet, Lady La Profeta, shared a poem inspired by her own story of migration. When she was 9, she and her family fled Colombia to seek refuge in the United States before finally finding safety and welcome in Canada, where she became a citizen.
After watching movies about Colombia that “didn’t feel authentic,” Lady La Profeta said, “I decided that I wanted to share our stories from our own perspective.” She was 12 at the time. She studied film, acting and ultimately writing.
Colombian-Canadian poet Lady La Profeta makes children laugh and scream as she performs her poem, “Acento,” at Comunidad AVES in Ciudad Juárez, before competing in the Abya Yala Copa América Poetry Slam, June 28, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
Lady La Profeta writes in both English and Spanish, her choice of language often dependent on the context of her ideas or the source of inspiration. She has won a national championship in Canada and Colombia, and in 2023 was the World Poetry Slam Organization Championship winner.
One of the few poets performing in English was MayaSpoken, who represented Canada. MayaSpoken “has been writing for as long as (she) can remember,” largely as a way to process and overcome the abuse she suffered as a child. In 2015, at age 17, she won first place in her first competition. In 2023, she won Canada’s national championship. Most of her inspiration comes from the injustices and violences she has witnessed throughout her life.
Canadian poet MayaSpoken signs a poetry anthology for a young member of the audience at Comunidad AVES, June 28, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
“People (are) experiencing different types of injustice and harm,” MayaSpoken said. “I wanted to be able to vocalize that through poetry and encourage people to make change.”
The winners of the Abya Yala Copa América, announced after the competition’s final round on Sunday, were Yordanis Febles of Cuba in first place, King Abraba of Brazil in second place and Amanda Austral of Chile in third place.
The event was sponsored by the Chihuahua Secretary of Culture, the International Office of Migration (IOM, part of the United Nations), FELIF, and several national, regional and international poetry slam organizations.
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